The Inherent Difficulty of Explaining the Fine Art of Museum Acquisitions to the General Public

The AMHIO by-laws, mission statement and strategic plan (currently under development) have aged well, acquiring a patina that suggests permanence and stability that will serve them well upon final adoption by the AMHIO Board of Directors.

The AMHIO has become aware of rumors; there is confusion in the minds of some museum visitors over the objects and didactic material contained herein. Perhaps some explanation of the museum and its history will help.

The current Director and the Board of the AMHIO think of the museum as a long-term project. It may very well take years for it to grow beyond these humble beginnings. We ask for your patience.

Nevertheless we understand that there are those who need to have the world explained clearly to them in a concise way that allows them to believe with some certainty in the sociohistoric narrative being offered.

Faced with such a task, we offer a partial textual explanation from three objects in the museum library:

First, on the fine art of object acquisition and strategies for interpretation from Susan Stewart's book, On Longing:

Thus there are two movements to the collection's gesture of standing for the world: first, the metonymic displacement of part for whole, item for context; and second, the invention of a classification scheme which will define space and time in such a way that the world is accounted for by the elements of the collection. We can see that what must be suppressed here is the priveleging of the context of origin, for the elements of the collection are, in fact, already accounted for by the world. And we consequently see the logic behind the blithe gesture toward decontextualization in museum acquisitions. a gesture which results in the treasures of one culture being stored and displayed in museums of another.¹

Second, some questions concerning monuments - another area of concern for the AMHIO:

How does the monument come into being? How does it serve to coalesce memory, both personal and corporate? Once created, how does the monument affect society?²

And third, a statement regarding the unexplainable from Rene Magritte, by way of Marjorie Perloff:

People who look for symbolic meanings fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the image. No doubt they sense this mystery, but they wish to get rid of it. They are afraid. By asking, "what does this mean?" they express a wish that everything is understandable. But if one does not reject the mystery, one has quite a different response. One asks other things.³

1. Stewart, Susan, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Duke University Press, 1993

2. Nelson, Robert and Olin, Margaret, Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade, The University of Chicago Press, 2003

3. Perloff, Marjorie, The Poetics of Indeterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage, Northwest University Press, 1981

We sincerely hope that this information will help visitors to better understand what we are working to create here at the Astoria Museum of the Heretofore Invisible Object.

Regarding the "Making Visible" Methodology: A Discussion of Specific Techniques

A wide variety of techniques may be utilized when attempting to make visible a previously unnoticed object.

For instance, using the hand, one may point to an object with a finger, make an object evident with a sweeping hand gesture, or perhaps reveal an object previously hidden from view.

The Museum Needs Your Help Acquiring Objects

Welcome to The Astoria Museum of the Heretofore Invisible Object. We need your help in identifying and acquiring art and artefacts in Astoria to include in the AMHIO collection.

Regular contributors may be offered the opportunity to become AMHIO Curators.

Here is the official procedure for recommending an object for acquisition:

1) Select an object in Astoria that you consider to be an important undiscovered work of art or artefact.

2) Photograph it.

3) Write a brief description to be displayed with the object. Describe what the object is, and provide pertinent information, such as the object's history, what it is made of, size (actual dimensions would be helpful), and any other information deemed relevant. Please limit description to 1,000 words or less.

4) Send image (or image link) to AMHIO Chief Curator.

Note: Only the object photograph and descriptive text are acquired by The Museum, not the object itself. All submissions are welcome. The AMHIO acquisitions committee reserves the right to review and reject items of questionable taste or legality.